Lost luggage: a thing of the past?

For those of you that regularly take valuable possessions with you on holiday, it might come as a shock to learn that, on average, four pieces of luggage are lost on each 747 flight. This can already be extremely expensive, with lost luggage costing the industry a yearly sum of £2 billion.

Sometimes the situation can become even worse – for example, thousands of bags were lost by British Airways in 2008 following the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5. But bags can be lost for all manner of reasons – most commonly if their paper tags are ripped off through the automatic sorting process.

While this can spell chaos for thousands of travellers every year, until now there was no reliable method for avoiding it.

That’s where Airbus comes in. They’ve just unveiled a new technology called Bag2go which looks like it could solve the problem once and for all. The process involves placing a satellite tracker and bar code display on the suitcase, enabling passengers to track their luggage using a smartphone.

As each barcode is unique, it will contain all the relevant information about its owner, its destination and which flight it should be placed on. This will easily enable users to confirm that their baggage is stored in the plane before takeoff, and enable them to quickly inform a member of the airline if they believe a mistake has been made.

In the event that the luggage is stolen or loaded into the wrong plane, the satellite technology will enable to airline to trace it and discover its actual location.

A mobile phone application will enable passengers to keep track of their luggage, giving them peace of mind over an entire trip. It can also alert the passenger if somebody attempts to tamper with the luggage.

It’s believed that passengers will be able to either buy or rent the bags once they’re released.

Track your finances as well as your luggage when on an overseas holiday by using a prepaid card. This is loaded with currency before you fly, helping you stick to a pre-determined budget.